Wednesday evening, 28-08-24 - the rest of the Mediterranean 'thing'

Good evening, everyone!  Now I am back in my happy zone, I am on another mission which is to reduce my 'borderline' cholesterol measurements with tweaks in diet by using the principles of the Mediterranean way of eating.  I have three months before the next blood test!

Look what came yesterday while I was out!

My goodness, I got lucky with this one.  It's a hefty old tome, packed with recipes that I really want to try (or adapt) and, at just £4 for the hardback, amazing value, especially as the Kindle version was around £13!  

It's usually the other way round, isn't it?

I've also found a couple of shorter books of recipes for Kindle at £0.99 - at that price you can't really go wrong, can you?

I like our Jamie's recipes anyway - he's so gung-ho about it all and makes me feel I can do it!
(I think Buddy is very cute too)

What I ate today

I had two early morning fitness classes so I had an apple before leaving for Shimmy Studio, another apple between classes and two oranges when I got home - one was not enough!

Lunch was a throw-things-together invention.  I opened a can of mixed pulses, drained and rinsed them and put some of them in a bowl with some chopped red onion, the last chicken thigh from Monday, torn into bits, some chopped garden tomatoes, a tsp of pumpkin seeds and a dressing made with one and a half tsp evoo and and one of red wine vinegar, half a tsp Dijon mustard, some lemon juice, garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper and mixed the lot together.  I made it first thing and let the flavours develop and it was so, so delicious on a bed of cucumber and leaves although I think a bit of honey in the dressing would have been lovely too.

Three syns for 7.5 mls olive oil and the seeds can be part of a B.  Dijon mustard is so low, I'm not going to count it and the rest is free/speed.

I was full up so had my fruit later - it's really useful at dealing with that danger time at around five o'clock.  Today, it was some strawberries

I found dinner on the wonderful BBC Good Food site, here.  https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sardine-pasta-crunchy-parsley-crumbs

Sardines haven't featured very much in my life so far but, according to the Mediterranean diet, they should be so off we go!

I added  squeeze of lemon juice and used chopped garden tomatoes instead of passata because why not? 

It didn't look great but it tasted absolutely fantastic.  I was really surprised.

No room for dessert.

Ten mls olive oil is four syns, the breadcrumbs are home made and can be part of a B, the sardines canned in brine are a free food, olives are one syn and the grated parmesan can be part of an A.

Summary:

part of a healthy extra A, about half, I estimate

two healthy extra Bs - because I'm counting the seeds and I made some more focaccia and had to taste it before freezing the rest, obviously!

eight syns (I think), all from healthy oil and fats

My meal plans for tomorrow:

B:  fruit, yogurt, nuts and seeds

L:  mixed bean, roasted veg and aubergine falafels, side salad; fruit
Using up leftovers.  Mush the beans, veg and baba ganoush together with some garlic and spices, shape into patties, brush with olive oil and bake or dry fry.  Do you think that will work?  Fingers crossed.

D:  lemon baked cod, assorted vegetables; fruit

Exercise:   online SET class

The extra bit:

The Mediterranean diet, it seems, isn't just about WHAT you eat, it's a whole lifestyle thing with five elements.

The first is, of course, the content of the meals, the ingredients - and I'm working on that.  It's great fun and I'm really enjoying it.

Socialising and community - eating with others, getting out and about, sharing and communicating.  I do some of that but, being an introvert, I get my strength and energy from times by myself and do find too much socialising draining and stressful.  That's just me.  I think I do enough.

Enjoying mealtimes.  So eating with friends and family, taking your time while eating, making meals an occasion, a feast.  Well, again, that's tricky as I live alone but I do try to make my meals attractive and good to look at.  Maybe I should sit at the table more though, make an occasion of it.  I'll think about that.

Staying active.  Well, yes, I do that a fair amount.  I'm happy with that side of things.

Getting outside - good fresh air.  I guess the Mediterranean air and warm, sunny climate is different to our more northern weather but getting pout and about is something we can all do and I think I could do more.  Another to ponder in time.  However, doing the garden get me out every day so that's good.

I guess I don't do too badly really.  As a school report might say, 'Fair but room for improvement'  😇